Here is a look at the taxes that apply to short-term and long-term gains from these two asset classes. : Real estate and gold have traditionally formed a large chunk of Indian investors' portfolios. However, over the past few years, returns from real estate have been poor to negative. On the other hand, gold does not give attractive return in the long term and has high transaction cost. Apart from keeping gold or real estate for own use, investments in these two asset classes don't make much financial sense.